WATCH: Student gov axes Pledge of Allegiance
Students say the Pledge is not indicative of equality and ignores social justice concerns.
The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer welcome at student government meetings at Grand Valley State university.
Student government leaders at a Michigan university have banned the Pledge of Allegiance from meetings. The student senate, which had previously made time for the Pledge each meeting, deemed the verbiage to be non-inclusive.
Video of the Thursday night meeting shows a weeks-long controversy coming to a close as the student senate discussed the vote on the removal the Pledge from the standard meeting agenda.
”A senator brought it to the attention of the general body about three or four weeks into the semester, ever since then it’s been a pretty continuous conversation,” said GVSU Student Senate VP of Public Relations Ryan Fritz.
Students who backed the initiative claimed that the Pledge of Allegiance is not inclusive to all individuals, and reportedly took issue with the mention of the word “God.”
[RELATED: Colorado State: ‘Avoid’ using ‘Americans,’ ‘America’]
”It’s important when we’re talking equity and equality and social justice that we are having those kinds of measures taken,” said Student Senator Lansing Sánchez-Castillo, adding that the language in the Pledge “doesn’t sit with this diverse population and fully representing them.
Student Senator and College Republican Dorian Thompson called the decision ”very upsetting especially on the week of Veterans Day,” calling it indicative of being at ”a sad point in our country where we are having debates on things that we should be talking about what unites us instead of divides us.
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